Daimler Defends Brawn GP Buyout

Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche defended his decision to fund a brand new Formula One project starting 2010, amid criticism from a fellow member of Daimler's board of directors. Earlier this week, shortly after Zetsche made the huge announcement of buying 75.1 percent of Brawn GP and transforming it into the new Silver Arrows F1 Team, we've reported that not everyone back in Stuttgart were that enthused with the idea.

“Exit at McLaren-Mercedes was a chance to completely leave the costly and controversial circus. We can not understand why the board of directors has immediately started a new formula one project,” said the chairman of Daimler's Corporate Works Council Erich Klemm, according to the DPA news agency.

Klemm argued that, under the current economic crisis, bumping money into an F1 project rather than investing it into road car development is pure nonsense. That after some reports that surfaced in the media on Tuesday suggested that Daimler spent no less than 200 million pounds sterling for the Brawn buyout.

In response, Zetsche sent a letter to the Daimler board of directors, insisting that his plan is to invest a maximum of 60 million euros in the team year in and year out, starting 2011.

“That is approximately a quarter of our formula one budgets of earlier years. In the future we will attain a greater attention for our brand for a clearly smaller cost,” said the Daimler chairman, according to Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.

No less than 3 car manufacturers left the series throughout the last year because of the economic downturn: Toyota, BMW and Honda. The first of those car makers (Toyota) decided to invest in other branches of motor racing, while Honda will not pursue other plans in motorsports. As for BMW, their plans for the future are still unknown.